LOUISVILLE, Ky. — If you want to call it an ugly win, you could point to the 20 turnovers the Cincinnati Bearcats committed. It seemed each of those was less sightly than the one before. Or maybe it was the 11 offensive rebounds they surrendered to Louisville, this supposedly being an unrelenting team on the boards.

Holding Louisville to a mere six 3-pointers and the lowest scoring output of the calendar year? That was a work of art — as brutal, perhaps, as Glengarry Glen Ross, but equally riveting and successful for the Bearcats, who left KFC Yum! Center late Thursday with a 69-66 victory over the No. 12 Cardinals.

The victory was the 13th in a row for the No. 13 Bearcats and improved their overall record to 20-2 and their American Athletic Conference record to 9-0. They got 28 points from star guard Sean Kilpatrick, who sealed the victory with four free throws, and 11 points and 9 rebounds from forward Justin Jackson, who played after injuring his ankle Sunday and yet bounced off the floor to tip in what became the decisive basket with less than 2 minutes to play.

It is the Bearcats’ misfortune they play a game in which defense is viewed as an affront to the purity of the game, as “setting the game back” whenever it is applied most effectively.

Trillions of data bits are being consumed this week in tribute to the Seattle Seahawks defense that will attempt to slow Denver’s Peyton Manning in the Super Bowl. Clayton Kershaw just signed up to make more with one inning than even high earners in the “real world” make in a year.

In basketball, however, it is ugly to do what Cincinnati is managing with its halfcourt defense. On the KenPom.com web site, there is the statistical glory of ranking No. 5 in the nation in defensive efficiency, but that’s about as good as it gets.

In the first half against Louisville, the Bearcats held the opposition to 8-of-26 shooting from the field, 1-of-9 on 3-pointers and 20 points. The Cards were averaging 83.2 points entering the game, 13th in Division I. So they scored less than half their customary output for a half in this one. And it wasn’t even an unusual performance for Cincinnati.

With a 28-20 lead at the break, the Bearcats had held their past three ranked opponents over five halves of basketball to an average of 23.2 points. Memphis scored 53 points in a full game. Pitt scored 43.

Ultimately, though, it wasn’t the Cincinnati defense that would determine what occurred in this game. It was the team’s ability — or inability — to handle the intense defensive pressure Louisville applied with the full backing of a full Yum! Center crowd.

After the Bearcats opened the half by casually breaking through for a trio of 3-pointers and 16 points before the first TV timeout, extending their lead to 44-27, they rapidly disintegrated in a flurry of turnovers, missed rebounds and even a technical foul. Louisville dashed off 14 points in 81 seconds capped by a 3-point play from Smith, who ended with 16 points. The lead was slashed to 44-41.

Cincinnati was able to work that back to eight points by working their way to four free throws and two layups, but the breakdowns began again and Louisville took advantage. Chris Jones went Chris Jones on the Bearcats, inventing a couple of pull-up jumpers that might not have been the design of the coach but turned out to be impossible to stop. The game was tied at 61 on a righthand layup by Montrezl Harrell (18 points), and Smith grabbed the lead — and saved the Cards from a lapsing shot-clock with a "Russdiculous" 3-pointer from the left wing with 5:03 to play.

Louisville’s only prior lead was at 2-0.

The Cards had a chance to extend it when forward Luke Hancock (16 points) got an open 3-pointer from an offensive rebound that center Stephan Van Treese kicked out to him, but the shot was missed.

Cincinnati got back in front when it came out of a timeout with 1:47 left in the game and eight seconds on the shot clock and Kilpatrick missed a pull-up off the front rim, which Jackson rose and tipped in the goal. The Bearcats then preserved that advantage with a Jackson steal after Harrell fumbled an entry pass.